If Calling them ‘Gypsies’ is Offensive Should We Just Kill Them?

We had a very wet, rainy month of July and, until this week, August has been decent but more rain is expected this weekend. Not great news unless your trees have been invaded by the Gypsy Moth. Oops, we aren't supposed to refer to them by that name any longer. Today they are Lymantria dispar dispar.

If your trees have been invaded by Lymantria dispar dispar, the rain we are receiving is actually helping to fight back by washing some of these insects away and saving the foliage on the trees of the Capital Region. The rain may not be enough however so my question is, how good are you at scraping eggs?

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According to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, you should be on the look-out for the fuzzy, brown egg masses from, what was formerly known as, ‘gypsy moth.'. If you identify this mass on your trees start scraping! The DEC suggest scraping into a bucket filled with hot, soapy water in order to destroy them. They say this won't get rid of them completely but it can help reduce damage to local trees next year.

As you can see from the Tweet, the DEC suggests using a quarter as your scraping tool. I suggest a garden hose. If the rain helps wash them away, your garden hose would blast them to infinity and beyond. Keep an eye for these egg sacks from now until Spring 2022.